Day 3 - Memphis Sphinx and Ramses II

First up on day three was Memphis to see the 80 ton alabaster sphinx (pic. 1) and the statue of Ramses II (pics. 2 & 3). The detail of the statue is amazing. Apparently it was originally one solid piece of stone. Unfortunately the legs have not been found.

The friendly fellows providing scale in my picture were asking for a dollar for appearing in them. Lots of people in Egypt try to get their picture taken for a dollar.

Driving in the Cairo area is quite an adventure. Generally people just walk out into traffic whenever. If your mini bus is dropping you off in the city it just stops in the lane it is in (even if it is the left one of four lanes to the curb). Everyone hops out, senior citizens and children included. and tries to make their way across the other lanes of traffic to the curb. Fortunately everyone knows about this and the drivers tend to let them pass. Unfortunately sometimes there are accidents and the end result is a very large number of orphans in Egypt.

Another interesting thing is to see the mix of mules (sometimes pulling carts, sometimes being ridden), ox, camels, cars and motorcycles along with larger motorized traffic all co-existing on the same roads. In the city it is mostly people and motorized vehicles but in the country anything goes.